What You Need to Know About Bulgarian Wine
March 9, 2023by Janice Williams
With an emphasis on local grape varieties and modern techniques in the cellars, young winemakers are reshaping the perspective of Bulgarian wine
Winemaking in Bulgaria dates back to 4000 B.C. when the Thracian empire ruled the land. Even Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey mention fine Thracian wine, including one particular scene in which Odysseus kills the cyclops Polyphemus after offering the one-eyed giant one too many glasses.
By the time the Romans arrived, winemaking was in full swing, and the country’s wine industry continued to thrive throughout the Ottoman reign between the 14th and 19th centuries. Despite suffering significant damage to vines during the phylloxera epidemic, Bulgaria’s wine production flourished in the late 1970s, when it was considered one of the largest wine exporters in the world.
And yet, nowadays, most drinkers are unaware that there’s wine to be discovered all across the country.
“It’s a struggling industry in Bulgaria right now,” says Robert Hayk, the cofounder of G&B Importers, a Maryland-based company that has brought Bulgarian wine into the U.S. since 2011. “They produced massive amounts of wine and then saw the complete disintegration of their industry following the fall of the Soviet Union. After that collapsed, the central economy collapsed, they privatized, and went into the dark ages and lost a lot of markets.”
But a new dawn is ushering in change.
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Overall, exports to the U.S. are still relatively low. Only about 30 Bulgarian producers have bottles in wine shops, grocery stores, and restaurant menus across the U.S. But interest is growing thanks to placement in major chains like Albertsons, Delhaize, Food Lion, Giant, Martin’s, and Costco. “There is still some resistance from buyers, but there’s a lot more curiosity now,” says Hayk, noting that G&B Importers is slated to bring in about 700,000 bottles this year of Bulgariana, K Cellars, and Rough Day wines. That’s a massive jump from the 400 cases of wines he brought in over 10 years ago.
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